Fla. man gets prison for swindling 2 NY women

A Florida man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for swindling two New York women, each of whom he promised to marry, out of roughly $400,000.

Paul Francois was convicted in February on grand theft and fraud charges. He had faced up to 90 years in prison.

At his sentencing Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, Francois said he planned to pay the women back.

“I’m sorry, I apologize about everything,” said Francois, 57.

Francois convinced one woman to sell her Astoria, N.Y., home, move to Florida and open a joint bank account that he secretly cleaned out, authorities said.

Rose Marie Anglade said the scheme cost her more than $280,000.

“Ten years behind bars, I believe he should have got more than that,” Anglade said after the hearing. “I work all my life for 27 years, I worked hard to get that money.”

While he was wooing Anglade, Francois was opening another joint bank account with another woman, authorities said.

Sheila Brissault said Francois promised to marry her, too, and convinced her take out an equity loan on her Elmont home and open a joint account to save for a new home in Florida. Authorities said he emptied that account instead.

Francois’ attorney said there was no theft and each woman had access to her joint account.

Anglade said she doesn’t believe she’ll get her money back.

“Right now, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’ve still got nothing.”

After Francois’ arrest in 2009, Anglade told The Associated Press that she met Francois, whom she knew in her youth in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during a 2007 visit to Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.

Brissault, also a Haitian immigrant, said she met Francois through his brother, a New York City cab driver, in 2007.

At the time, both women were single mothers whose children were just finishing school.